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Or Wallace or Sanders. Sanders really p-ssed me off bad. First he has that sloppy fumble (I didn't think he ever had possession but he still sucked) and then the other drop and then the moping on the bench. Our WRs are starting to show signes of lack of leadership without Hines being around.

BALTIMORE — Ben Roethlisberger was the first to greet Charlie Batch, grabbing him tightly for a 30-second bear hug that summed up everything about this emotional day, this resilient team, this improbable win.

The quarterback who was too hurt to play knew exactly what was going through the mind of the quarterback who was being called too old to play.

The Steelers had just beaten the Ravens team they supposedly couldn’t beat — not in this stadium, not under these circumstances, not with this man at the controls, and it meant everything to both of them.

“You go out there and that was a big win,” Batch said. “It was one of those moments, and he and I shared it. I’ll keep it between us what was said, but it was something that was special.”

Special almost didn’t begin to describe the Steelers’ 23-20 win Sunday over the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, where it appeared not one of the 71,442 in attendance left before Shaun Suisham decided it with his third field goal, a 42-yarder on the final, stunning-to-the-home-crowd play.

Maybe because it looked to be all over for the Steelers (7-5) when the Ravens (9-3), in position to wrap up the AFC North with a win and a little help, seized a 13-3 lead on Joe Flacco’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin late in the second quarter.

It was a sizable deficit for a Steelers offense that was averaging a touchdown a game without its franchise quarterback.

“A lot of people were counting us out,” Jonathan Dwyer said. “It was an amazing win.”

The Steelers were without the still-injured Roethlisberger, the one player they can always count on to get them out of these jams. In his place was a man who will turn 38 in three days, the oldest quarterback in Steelers history.

And they were turning the ball over yet again — three more turnovers, giving them an unfathomable 11 in two games — and turning over players on both sides of the ball at an alarming rate, Willie Colon and Ike Taylor among them.

The All-Pro center, Maurkice Pouncey, was at left guard on a makeshift offensive line in which a seventh-round rookie, Kelvin Beachum, was at right tackle and a backup, Doug Legursky, was at center. Top cornerback Taylor was injured and out, too, and Flacco and Boldin spent the first half picking on his replacement, Cortez Allen. About the only addition was Troy Polamalu, who played for the first time since tearing a calf muscle eight weeks ago.

But the team that couldn’t beat the near-comical Browns the week before found a way to beat the Ravens, something no team had done in Baltimore since the Steelers last accomplished it 16 games and two years ago.

The Steelers ended the Ravens’ 12-game AFC North winning streak, four-game overall winning streak and held onto the AFC’s second wild-card spot that might be decided when the Bengals (7-5) — who came back themselves to beat the Chargers 20-13 — visit Heinz Field in three weeks.

“We control our own destiny,” linebacker Larry Foote said. “As long as keep winning, we get a ticket.”

They did it with defense, limiting the Ravens to a dozen yards in a pivotal fourth quarter turned by James Harrison’s strip-sack of Flacco, altered by Batch’s clutch, game-tying 7-yard touchdown pass to Heath Miller with 7:24 remaining and decided by a stirring, game-ending drive that lasted 6 minutes, 14 seconds.

“I challenged the offense: ‘Let’s go out and do it,’ ” Batch said. “We put everything on the line. I wouldn’t say our season was on the line, but we knew we had to come in and get this win because in order to get into that (Super Bowl) tournament we need wins, plain and simple.”

Batch, so dreadful the week before while getting picked off three times by the Browns, went 25 of 36 for 276 yards — his most ever with the Steelers.

It was the first win for the Steelers in the seven career games that Roethlisberger has not started against the Ravens.

More than anything, maybe that explained why a quarterback whose career is not nearly over was so overcome by the play of a quarterback who, depending on Roethlisberger’s health, may have played his last game.

“December football, it’s big,” said Batch, who is very much in the December of his career.

Of course, Decembers are almost always something to remember for the Steelers, who are 9-2 in their last 11 games played in the month.

And the game’s biggest block? It was delivered by none other than Batch, a seal block on Cary Williams that left a running lane wide open for Jonathan Dwyer on his 16-yard touchdown run that tied it at 13 early in the third quarter. Batch set up the score with a 43-yard completion to Miller.

“It shows you what kind of heart he has,” Dwyer said. “I know I wouldn’t have scored without that block.”

The loss likely won’t cost the Ravens the division, yet they begrudgingly ceded the win to the Steelers.

As safety Bernard Pollard was praising Batch, saying, “He’s a professional quarterback. He’s on the roster for a reason.”

Ed Reed, listening nearby, replied with a snarl and an off-color comment.

Typical Steelers vs. Ravens in other words. It was the seventh time in their last eight games the final margin was three points.

Not surprisingly, the Steelers hugged each other, danced in the end zone and celebrated in unison at the end, and that attracted the Ravens’ attention, especially given that Pittsburgh has almost no chance to win the division.

“When you looked at their faces when they ran off the field, man, this wasn’t the Super Bowl,” said Reed, who had a fumble recovery and an interception.

No, but it wasn’t the Blooper Bowl of the week before, either. And just when they seemed to be going away, the Steelers showed their biggest rival and the rest of the NFL they might be around a little longer.

Maybe for some January football

Molon labe

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. George Orwell

American metal pimped by asiansteel
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you 1. Jesus Christ, 2.The American G.I., One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

BALTIMORE – His has been the uncertain life for so long that after 15 years Charlie Batch simply accepts it. Week after week he practices with the Pittsburgh Steelers, preparing to play quarterback, even though he knows the chance is likely to never come and he will spend the game wearing a cap, carrying a clipboard and celebrating somebody else's touchdowns.
Then he walks back to the locker room, sees the coach – a happy man with a congratulatory hand extended – and he never knows quite what to say.
Great job? For what? Wearing a cap and carrying a clipboard?

So on Sunday night, Charlie Batch wept. He turned away from the last-second field goal that gave the Steelers a 23-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, fell into the arms of injured Ben Roethlisberger and sobbed. He cried for the win. He cried for the chance. And he cried because he knows it will go away. But mostly he cried because he didn't want last week to be the final memory the NFL had of Charlie Batch.
You see, last week, he got to start a game. It was his first since the end of last season and it came in Cleveland, a place where the Steelers are expected to dominate. It was a game they needed to win. Instead they had eight turnovers. And even though those miscues weren't all his fault, they felt like they were.
"I was the one in charge of our eight turnovers, I took them personally," he said Sunday night as he stood in an empty Steelers locker room at M&T Bank Stadium.
Batch wasn't sure he would get another chance. Roethlisberger has injuries to his ribs and shoulder, and missed the Steelers' previous two games before Sunday. But Big Ben wanted to play in Baltimore, given the way Pittsburgh's season had fallen apart and the playoffs growing more unlikely. All week Roethlisberger worked to throw, pushing and pushing to play. Finally on Friday, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told Batch that Roethlisberger wouldn't play.

Batch would have his last opportunity for redemption.
Sunday's victory was not a beautiful thing. Steelers-Ravens games never are. There were fights. There were cheap hits. Players shouted at each other. Tomlin seemed to stalk away from Baltimore coach John Harbaugh after the end-of-game handshake. And Batch was equally as imperfect. He was intercepted once. Another time he threw a pass over the head of a wide-open Mike Wallace in the end zone. He missed several other chances to push the Steelers downfield. Through much of the first half it looked as if the Ravens might blow out the Steelers.
Only they never did. And that says everything about the Steelers, Tomlin and Batch.
There is a resilience to Pittsburgh that is unique. In a league where wins often come because of sheer willpower, the Steelers manufacture victories when they seem most unlikely. Old stars have gone. Current ones like Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu are worn down by years of the fight. On Sunday, the Steelers not only didn't have Roethlisberger, they maneuvered wide receivers around and juggled running backs hoping to find some dream formula. Somehow they found one.

"We persevered," Tomlin kept saying after the game.
Later, when asked about his defense that forced two turnovers, he said: "I appreciate the fact they didn't let go of the rope."
But Charlie Batch won this game for Pittsburgh. He won it the way Roethlisberger has won so many in the past: moving methodically, creating splendor from chaos. There was 6:14 left in the game when the Steelers got the ball on their own 15-yard line in a game tied, 20-20. They never gave it back.
"You put your heart and soul into it," he later said. "You try to leave everything out on the field."

Yes, he wept when kicker Shaun Suisham's field goal rose into the foggy night and dropped through the goalposts. What else could he do?
Last Monday he sat for hours at the Steelers' practice facility watching the tape of the eight-turnover game and a sick feeling grew in his stomach. All those days practicing for games he would never play and this is what he did with the one Pittsburgh desperately needed? How that memory of Cleveland burned inside.
"You want to prove that last week was a fluke," he said.
Next week he probably won't play. By the weekend, Roethlisberger's ribs and shoulders will be healed and Batch will practice but not play. He's started only nine games since the Lions released him in 2001. In 2002, 2004 and 2008 he didn't get in one game, not even for one pass. No statistical line exists for him in those seasons. It's like he was never there.
The Steelers knew. Players have come to trust him as a leader, as a reason to fight. He's been their union representative, a player-coach, someone who has been around long enough to have an answer for every situation that could possibly arise.

And also, it seems, a way to win the game they absolutely needed.
So Sunday night, with the victory complete and the playoffs a reality again in this 7-5 season, Batch was one of the last Steelers to walk into the tunnel beneath the stadium. There outside the locker room stood Tomlin with a smile on his face and his hand outstretched just as he had all those wins when Batch never played.
"Good to see you got a trick or two left in you!" Tomlin shouted.
And for once Charlie Batch could smile back and say: "Yes."

Molon labe

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. George Orwell

American metal pimped by asiansteel
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you 1. Jesus Christ, 2.The American G.I., One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

Or Wallace or Sanders. Sanders really p-ssed me off bad. First he has that sloppy fumble (I didn't think he ever had possession but he still sucked) and then the other drop and then the moping on the bench. Our WRs are starting to show signes of lack of leadership without Hines being around.